• Enoch F Akowuah, Rebecca H Maier, Helen C Hancock, Ehsan Kharatikoopaei, Luke Vale, Cristina Fernandez-Garcia, Emmanuel Ogundimu, Janelle Wagnild, Ayesha Mathias, Zoe Walmsley, Nicola Howe, Adetayo Kasim, Richard Graham, Gavin J Murphy, Joseph Zacharias, and UK Mini Mitral Trial Investigators.
• Department of Cardiac Surgery, the James Cook University Hospital, South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Middlesbrough, United Kingdom.
• JAMA. 2023 Jun 13; 329 (22): 195719661957-1966.

ImportanceThe safety and effectiveness of mitral valve repair via thoracoscopically-guided minithoracotomy (minithoracotomy) compared with median sternotomy (sternotomy) in patients with degenerative mitral valve regurgitation is uncertain.ObjectiveTo compare the safety and effectiveness of minithoracotomy vs sternotomy mitral valve repair in a randomized trial.Design, Setting, And ParticipantsA pragmatic, multicenter, superiority, randomized clinical trial in 10 tertiary care institutions in the UK. Participants were adults with degenerative mitral regurgitation undergoing mitral valve repair surgery.InterventionsParticipants were randomized 1:1 with concealed allocation to receive either minithoracotomy or sternotomy mitral valve repair performed by an expert surgeon.Main Outcomes And MeasuresThe primary outcome was physical functioning and associated return to usual activities measured by change from baseline in the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) version 2 physical functioning scale 12 weeks after the index surgery, assessed by an independent researcher masked to the intervention. Secondary outcomes included recurrent mitral regurgitation grade, physical activity, and quality of life. The prespecified safety outcomes included death, repeat mitral valve surgery, or heart failure hospitalization up to 1 year.ResultsBetween November 2016 and January 2021, 330 participants were randomized (mean age, 67 years, 100 female [30%]); 166 were allocated to minithoracotomy and 164 allocated to sternotomy, of whom 309 underwent surgery and 294 reported the primary outcome. At 12 weeks, the mean between-group difference in the change in the SF-36 physical function T score was 0.68 (95% CI, -1.89 to 3.26). Valve repair rates (≈ 96%) were similar in both groups. Echocardiography demonstrated mitral regurgitation severity as none or mild for 92% of participants at 1 year with no difference between groups. The composite safety outcome occurred in 5.4% (9 of 166) of patients undergoing minithoracotomy and 6.1% (10 of 163) undergoing sternotomy at 1 year.Conclusions And RelevanceMinithoracotomy is not superior to sternotomy in recovery of physical function at 12 weeks. Minithoracotomy achieves high rates and quality of valve repair and has similar safety outcomes at 1 year to sternotomy. The results provide evidence to inform shared decision-making and treatment guidelines.Trial Registrationisrctn.org Identifier: ISRCTN13930454.

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